Quoll

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal, and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Another two species are known from fossil remains in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits in Queensland.
Genetic evidence indicates that quolls evolved around 15 million years ago in the Miocene, and that the ancestors of the six species had all diverged by around four million years ago. The six species vary in weight and size, from to. They have brown or black fur and pink noses. They are largely solitary, but come together for a few social interactions, such as mating, which occurs during the winter season. A female gives birth to up to 30 pups, but the number that can be raised to adulthood is limited by the number of teats. They have a life span of 1–5 years.
Quolls eat smaller mammals, small birds, lizards, and insects. All species have drastically declined in numbers since Australasia was colonised by Europeans, with one species, the eastern quoll, becoming extinct on the Australian mainland in the 1960s. Major threats to their survival include the toxic cane toad, predators such as feral cats and foxes, urban development, and poison baiting. Conservation efforts include captive breeding programs and reintroductions.

Taxonomy

The name Dasyurus means "hairy-tail", and was coined by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1796 from δασύς, meaning "hairy", and οὐρά, meaning "tail".
In 1770, Captain Cook collected quolls on his exploration of the east coast of Australia, adopting an Aboriginal name for the animals. Although the origin of Cook's specimens are unclear, the word and its variants je-quoll, jaquol or taquol are derived from the word dhigul in the language of the Guugu Yimithirr people of far north Queensland. No evidence indicates the local indigenous people used the word in the Sydney area. They were likened in appearance to a polecat or marten in the earliest reports, the tiger quoll being called "spotted marten" and eastern quoll "spotted opossum", but by 1804, the names "native fox", "native cat" and "tiger cat" had been adopted by early settlers; quolls are still called "marsupial foxes" or "marsupial cats".
In the 1960s, noted naturalist David Fleay pushed for the revival of the term "quoll" to replace the then-current vernacular names that he felt were misleading.
Four species have been recovered from Pleistocene cave deposits from Mount Etna Caves National Park near Rockhampton in central Queensland. Remains of the spotted-tailed quoll and the northern quoll, and a species either identical or very similar to the eastern quoll, as well as a prehistoric species as yet undescribed, all lived in what was a rainforest climate. The northern quoll is still found in the region. The fossil species D. dunmalli, described by Bartholomai in 1971, is the oldest species recovered to date. Its remains were found in Pliocene deposits near Chinchilla in southeastern Queensland. Known only from a lower jaw and some teeth, it was a relative of the spotted-tailed quoll.
The first species described, the eastern quoll, was originally placed in the American opossum genus Didelphis by an anonymous author, and named Didelphis maculata. This name is no longer considered valid, and the second part of the name is now given to a different species, the spotted-tailed quoll, Dasyurus maculatus, while the eastern quoll was renamed Dasyurus viverrinus by George Shaw in 1800.
The tribe Dasyurini, to which quolls belong, also includes the Tasmanian devil, the antechinus, the kowari, and the mulgara. Genetic analysis of cytochrome b DNA and 12S rRNA of the mitochondria indicates the quolls evolved and diversified in the late Miocene between 15 and 5 million years ago, a time of great diversification in marsupials. The ancestors of all current species had diverged by the early Pliocene, around 4 million years ago.

Species

The genus Dasyurus consists of six species of quoll:

Image	Species	Common name	Description	Distribution
	Dasyurus maculatus	Tiger quoll, spotted-tail quoll	It tends to prefer rock dens more than dens made out of wood. In a study submitted by Belcher and Darrant in 2006, the habitats of spotted-tailed quoll were directly related to the amount of prey found in the area. Gullies and drainage ditches were used quite often by the quolls, and ridges with rocky outcrops were used to make the rock dens the animals enjoy. The species in Queensland has declined rapidly and is now absent from the Brisbane region.	South-eastern Australia. Important strongholds for the population occur in the Blackall/Conondale ranges, Main Range, Lamington Plateau and the McPherson and Border ranges.
	Dasyurus geoffroii Gould, 1841	Western quoll, chuditch	The western quoll is believed to have once occupied 70% of Australia, but because of cane toads, predators, habitat destruction, and poison baiting, it is now less abundant.	Restricted to the Jarrah Forest and the central and southern Australian Wheatbelt.
	Dasyurus viverrinus	Eastern quoll	Widely distributed across southeastern Australia until it became extinct on the mainland in the 1960s.	The pastures, scrublands, forests, and alpine areas of Tasmania. The species has been successfully reintroduced to Mt Rothwell and Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary on mainland Australia.
	Dasyurus hallucatus Gould, 1842	Northern quoll	Found in the northern third of Australia a century ago. Presently, it resides in high rocky areas and areas with heavy rainfall. In 2003, northern quolls were translocated to Astell and Pobassoo Islands to isolate them from the toxic invasive cane toad. Genetic analysis indicates it is the earliest offshoot from the ancestors of other quolls.	It is abundant on the minor islands surrounding northern Australia.
	Dasyurus spartacus Van Dyck, 1987	Bronze quoll	It is the only mammal found in the Trans-Fly ecoregion, but not in northern Australia. Rising sea levels due to an increase in global temperature caused a land bridge that once connected Australia and New Guinea to be covered up with water. A 2007 study conducted by the University of New South Wales suggests the bronze quoll is closely related to the western quoll, their ancestors diverging with the separation of land masses.	It is found in the southern part of New Guinea south of the Fly River.
	Dasyurus albopunctatus Schlegel, 1880	New Guinean quoll	It tends to live at an elevation of about, and is not found in the south-western lowlands, although it can be found on Yapen Island.	Found throughout most of New Guinea.

The following is a phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial genome sequences:

Description

Quolls are solitary, nocturnal animals. Depending on the species, adult quolls can be long, with hairy tails about long. Average weight differs greatly depending on the species; male western and eastern quolls weigh about and females. The spotted-tailed quoll is the largest, with the male weighing about and the female. The northern quoll is the smallest, and the male weighs on average, and the female. Their coats are sandy, brown, or black, with a sparse scattering of white spots. They have bright pink noses and long snouts.
Females have >8 teats and develop a pouch during the breeding season, which opens toward the tail when they are rearing young. Their natural lifespans are 1–5 years; the larger species tend to live longer.
Quolls exhibit biofluorescence under ultraviolet light.

Distribution and habitat

Quolls are indigenous to mainland Australia, the island state of Tasmania, and New Guinea. The six species were once widely distributed across the three land masses, but are now restricted to only a few areas.
Although primarily ground-dwelling, the genus has developed secondary arboreal characteristics. Each species of quoll lives in distinct geographical areas. The spotted-tailed quoll is an exclusively mesic zone species; inhabiting wetter habitats. The western quoll also inhabits mesic habitat, but has adapted to arid regions across inland Australia, while the northern quoll inhabits tropical habitat of high rainfall.

Behaviour

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials. They are primarily nocturnal, sleeping in hollowed-out logs or rocky dens and coming out to hunt during the night, though on rare occasions they can be seen looking for prey during the day.
They are mostly ground-dwelling, but it is not uncommon to see a quoll climbing a tree. Quolls mark their territory several kilometres away from their dens. A male's territory often overlaps many females' territories, and male and female quolls only meet for mating. Some quolls use communal latrines, usually on an outcropping used for marking territory and social functions, which may have up to 100 droppings in them. Quolls are mostly solitary, limiting contact with other quolls to mating or other social activities.

Diet

Quolls are mostly carnivorous. The smaller quolls primarily eat insects, birds, frogs, lizards and fruit; the larger species eat birds, reptiles, and mammals, including echidnas and possums. The spotted-tailed quoll's diet is dominated by mammals such as brushtail possums, rabbits, hares and invertebrates. The exact mix is variable depending on the availability of prey after bushfires, and can include carrion or bandicoots when food is scarce. The other species of quoll have also been known to eat carrion.
Quolls hunt by stalking. Quolls pin small prey down with their front paws while devouring it, and jump onto larger prey, sinking in their claws and closing their jaws around the neck. The paws and vibrissae of quolls allow them to reach into small burrows to find prey. Quolls can obtain all the water they need from their food, making them adaptable during droughts or other periods of water shortage. A study of historical records revealed 111 written accounts of quolls opportunistically feeding on human remains in Australia.